Rated 4.1 out of 5, one of the best movies of the year could have been directed by Spielberg

This is one of the films that received the best press and audience average of 2023, 4.1 points out of 5, and its genesis deserves a little closer look.

This film is Abduction, in cinemas from November 1, the 5th biggest success in France to date for director Marco Bellocchio. The Italian director notably directed Le Diable au corps, Le Traitre and Vincere.

It’s interesting to spend a few moments on the genesis of his latest film, as we learn that he could have taken a completely different turn! Before Marco Bellocchio, a certain Steven Spielberg targeted the project. Or more precisely the true story that inspired the film, the Mortara case!

The story of The Rapture begins in 1852. When he was only one year old, young Edgardo Mortara, who was born into a Jewish family, was secretly baptized by a family servant who feared for his life because he had fallen seriously ill. Five years later, the soldiers of Pope Pius IX entered Mortara’s house and took the child from the family.

After his abduction, the boy was integrated into a seminary created to convert Jews and Muslims to the Catholic religion. Kidnapping depicts his journey and his parents’ struggle to reintegrate him into his family and his original culture, in a quest for justice that takes place alongside major political events.

In 2016, Steven Spielberg planned to bring Mortara’s novel to the screen, with Mark Rylance and Tony Kushner writing in front of the camera. This feature film was supposed to be made after Ready Player One. At the time, the director was supposed to collaborate with Harvey Weinstein (before the #MeToo movement emerged), but the two men disagreed on several issues, and Weinstein decided to make another adaptation of the case, with Robert De Niro in the cast and Icelander Balthasar Kormákur. directorate. None of these projects will see the light of day.

It was after they heard that Steven Spielberg had dropped out of the project that Marco Bellocchio finally took on the project. “When he gave up, I turned to him with greater interest, because no one in Italy, except a few scholars of the Jewish community, a few historians or Risorgimento specialists, knew the story.“, explains Marco Bellocchio in the columns Telerama.

Good for him, as this passion has earned him a prestigious selection at this year’s Cannes competition and excellent press and public acclaim.

At the age of 83, Marco Bellocchio has a lot of news, as some cinemas are showing another film he made: the documentary Marx Can Wait, in which he recounts the suicide of his twin brother, Camillo, through the testimony of his family. .

Rapture and Marx Can Wait are both currently in theaters.